Public Address System A system of microphones, amplifiers, and loudspeakers used to amplify speech or music in a large building or at an outdoor gathering. 1. Microphone A microphone, colloquially nicknamed mic is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. Electromagnetic transducers facilitate the conversion of acoustic signals into electrical signals. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and public events, motion picture production, live and recorded audio engineering, two-way radios, megaphones, radio and television broadcasting, and in computers for recording voice, speech recognition, VoIP, and for non-acoustic purposes such as ultrasonic checking or knock sensors. Most microphones today use electromagnetic induction (dynamic microphones), capacitance change (condenser microphones) or piezoelectricity (piezoelectric microphones) to produce an electrical signal from air pressure variations. Microphones typically need to be connected to a preamplifier before the signal can be amplified with an audio power amplifier and a speaker or recorded. The sensitive transducer element of a microphone is called its element or capsule. Except in thermophone based microphones, sound is first converted to mechanical motion by means of a diaphragm, the motion of which is then converted to an electrical signal. A complete microphone also includes a housing, some means of bringing the signal from the element to other equipment, and often an electronic circuit to adapt the output of the capsule to the equipment being driven. A wireless microphone contains a radio transmitter. Moving-coil microphones use the same dynamic principle as in a loudspeaker, only reversed. A small movable induction coil, positioned in the magnetic field of a permanent magnet, is attached to the diaphragm. When sound enters through the windscreen of the microphone, the sound wave moves the diaphragm. When the diaphragm vibrates, the coil moves in the magnetic field, producing a varying current in the coil through electromagnetic induction. A single dynamic membrane does not respond linearly to all audio frequencies. Some microphones for this reason utilize multiple membranes for the different parts of the audio spectrum and then combine the resulting signals. Combining the multiple signals correctly is difficult and designs that do this are rare and tend to be expensive. There are on the other hand several designs that are more specifically aimed towards isolated parts of the audio spectrum. The AKG D 112, for example, is designed for bass response rather than treble. In audio engineering several kinds of microphones are often used at the same time to get the best results. 2. Amplifier Not all amplifiers are the same and are therefore classified according to their circuit configurations and methods of operation. In “Electronics”, small signal amplifiers are commonly used devices as they have the ability to amplify a relatively small input signal, for example from a Sensor such as a photo-device, into a much larger output signal to drive a relay, lamp or loudspeaker for example. There are many forms of electronic circuits classed as amplifiers, from Operational Amplifiers and Small Signal Amplifiers up to Large Signal and Power Amplifiers. The classification of an amplifier depends upon the size of the signal, large or small, its physical configuration and how it processes the input signal, that is the relationship between input signal and current flowing in the load. Amplifiers can be thought of as a simple box or block containing the amplifying device, such as a Transistor, Field Effect Transistor or Op-amp, which has two input terminals and two output terminals (ground being common) with the output signal being much greater than that of the input signal as it has been “Amplified”. Generally, an ideal signal amplifier has three main properties, Input Resistance or ( Rin ), Output Resistance or ( Rout ) and of course amplification known commonly as Gain or ( A ). No matter how complicated an amplifier circuit is, a general amplifier model can still be used to show the relationship of these three properties. The difference between the input and output signals is known as the Gain of the amplifier and is basically a measure of how much an amplifier “amplifies” the input signal. For example, if we have an input signal of 1 volt and an output of 50 volts, then the gain of the amplifier would be “50”. In other words, the input signal has been increased by a factor of 50. This increase is called Gain. Amplifier gain is simply the ratio of the output divided-by the input. Gain has no units as its a ratio, but in Electronics it is commonly given the symbol “A”, for Amplification. Then the gain of an amplifier is simply calculated as the “output signal divided by the input signal”. Amplifier Gain: The introduction to the amplifier gain can be said to be the relationship that exists between the signals measured at the output with the signal measured at the input. There are three different kinds of amplifier gain which can be measured and these are: Voltage Gain (Av), Current Gain ( Ai ) and Power Gain ( Ap ) depending upon the quantity being measured with examples of these different types of gains are given below. Ideal Amplifier We can know specify the characteristics for an ideal amplifier from our discussion above with regards to its Gain, meaning voltage gain: The amplifiers gain, ( A ) should remain constant for varying values of input signal. Gain is not be affected by frequency. Signals of all frequencies must be amplified by exactly the same amount. The amplifiers gain must not add noise to the output signal. It should remove any noise that is already exists in the input signal. The amplifiers gain should not be affected by changes in temperature giving good temperature stability. The gain of the amplifier must remain stable over long periods of time. Amplifier Classes The classification of an amplifier as either a voltage or a power amplifier is made by comparing the characteristics of the input and output signals by measuring the amount of time in relation to the input signal that the current flows in the output circuit. We saw in the Common Emitter transistor tutorial that for the transistor to operate within its “Active Region” some form of “Base Biasing” was required. This small Base Bias voltage added to the input signal allowed the transistor to reproduce the full input waveform at its output with no loss of signal. However, by altering the position of this Base bias voltage, it is possible to operate an amplifier in an amplification mode other than that for full waveform reproduction. With the introduction to the amplifier of a Base bias voltage, different operating ranges and modes of operation can be obtained which are categorized according to their classification. These various mode of operation are better known as Amplifier Class. Audio power amplifiers are classified in an alphabetical order according to their circuit configurations and mode of operation. Amplifiers are designated by different classes of operation such as class “A”, class “B”, class “C”, class “AB”, etc. These different Amplifier Classes range from a near linear output but with low efficiency to a non-linear output but with a high efficiency. No one class of operation is “better” or “worse” than any other class with the type of operation being determined by the use of the amplifying circuit. There are typical maximum efficiencies for the various types or class of amplifier, with the most commonly used being: • Class A Amplifier – has low efficiency of less than 40% but good signal reproduction and linearity. • Class B Amplifier – is twice as efficient as class A amplifiers with a maximum theoretical efficiency of about 70% because the amplifying device only conducts (and uses power) for half of the input signal. • Class AB Amplifier – has an efficiency rating between that of Class A and Class B but poorer signal reproduction than class A amplifiers. • Class C Amplifier – is the most inefficient amplifier class as only a very small portion of the input signal is amplified therefore the output signal bears very little resemblance to the input signal. Class C amplifiers have the worst signal reproduction. 3. Loudspeaker A loudspeaker (or loud-speaker or speaker) is a device containing one or more electroacoustic transducers;[1] which convert an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound.[2] The first primitive loudspeakers were invented during the development of telephone systems in the late 1800s, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube beginning around 1912 made loudspeakers truly practical. By the 1920s they were used in radios, phonographs, public address systems and theatre sound systems for talking motion pictures. Speakers come in all shapes and sizes, enabling you to listen to music on your iPod, enjoy a film at the cinema or hear a friend’s voice over the phone. In order to translate an electrical signal into an audible sound, speakers contain an electromagnet: a metal coil which creates a magnetic field when an electric current flows through it. This coil behaves much like a normal (permanent) magnet, with one particularly handy property: reversing the direction of the current in the coil flips the poles of the magnet. Inside a speaker, an electromagnet is placed in front of a permanent magnet. The permanent magnet is fixed firmly into position whereas the electromagnet is mobile. As pulses of electricity pass through the coil of the electromagnet, the direction of its magnetic field is rapidly changed. This means that it is in turn attracted to and repelled from the permanent magnet, vibrating back and forth. The electromagnet is attached to a cone made of a flexible material such as paper or plastic which amplifies these vibrations, pumping sound waves into the surrounding air and towards your ears.